Final Pass Rate Fluctuations of Power Engineering Students May Be Related to Load Shedding, and not Load Shifting

Power engineering students need to register for and successfully complete a capstone module within the Baccalaureus Technologiae qualification in Electrical Engineering in South Africa. These students need to submit six different assignments over a period of 10 months, comprising a proposal, a progress report, a poster, a power point presentation, a conference paper and a final report. However, it has been observed that the final grades of working students have fluctuated dramatically over the past three years, leading to the following research question “What may be contributing to these fluctuations?” The purpose of this paper is to discuss the fluctuations and provide possible reasons for them based on literature applicable to this field. An exploratory case study is used to provide quantitative data of the student final grades from 2014 – 2016. Results show that the pass rate varied from 71% to 77% to 56%. Furthermore, some 18 students submitted their proposal in 2016, but never submitted the other five assignments. This concern may be related to load shedding by both students and academics, rather than load shifting. A key recommendation of this research is to share its findings with top management of student employers and the university, thereby hoping to create awareness of the importance of lightening the workloads of employed students andacademics during important submission periods of capstone modules.